Questions that Make You Go Hmmm… #5

by: Staci Stallings

So far we’ve examined some interesting questions about God and our relationship to Him.

If you’re like me, there are days I so feel God’s Presence and days He feels very far away. I know from my studies and personal experience that when God feels far away, He didn’t move. I did. Thus we come to this very important question:

What is between me and God?

Let’s say that you and a friend are at a party, but neither knows the other is there. Let’s also say it’s a rather large gathering that’s divided into sections or rooms. Now, you might, of course, get fortunate and run into your friend, but it is equally likely that you miss each other altogether. Why?

Well for one, you’re not looking for your friend. You don’t know they are there.

Two, if they are in a different room than you the whole day, how are you ever going to see them?

I think the same thing happens with God. For wont of a better metaphor, we put up walls between ourselves and God and then get mad when we don’t feel Him.

What are these walls? Oh, they can be lots of things. Worries, doubts, fears. Activities, meetings, schedules. Sheer busyness is often a culprit. Stress can be too as well as impossible expectations of ourselves, our God and others.

In short, anything that separates us from God is what is between us.

The thing to know, however, is that it is never God that put up the barrier. Once we are saved, the barrier is removed and the only way it goes back up is if we put it there.

So what is between you and God?

Maybe it’s the events of the world that plunge you into fear. Remove them by taking your gaze off of them and putting it on God. Spend more time in prayer and in seeking Him.

Maybe it’s personal stuff–the death of a loved one or an illness. Again, learn to see “through” those things to God who is right there.

I know after my brother’s death, my emotions were in a swirl of chaos, never so bad as at night. I would lay there, and fear and anger and sorrow would just about overwhelm me. It was in those moments that I learned to say over and over, “God is here and He loves me.” When there was nothing else to hold onto, I held onto those two baseline truths.

What I did, repeatedly, was to consciously remove every other barrier between me and God. I held onto Him, clung to Him, pulled Him close and refused to let go.

So if you’re in a state of loneliness, fear, or worry, work on consciously removing any barrier that stands between you and God. You can remove them by casting Satan and his minions out by the Blood Jesus Christ. You can remove them by conscious focus on prayer to God. You can remove them by taking your eyes off of those things and fastening them to God.

Doing so is an act of will, but it is also an act of faith.

Try it. See how much difference it makes.

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